March 29th, 2015 – Oregonlive.com: After legalization, marijuana events fighting for a foothold in Portland

This is an story that appeared on Oregonlive.com about the Oregon Hemp Convention that had its second event in Portland.

The story goes on to say “nobody in Portland understands the struggle of organizing large-scale marijuana events like Paul Stanford. The local marijuana advocate started Hempstalk in the early 2000s, and has faced pressure from police and city officials practically every step along the way.

The Portland Parks Bureau’s permitting refusal sounds like an endgame, but Stanford sees it as just another roadblock.

In November Hempstalk’s lawyer filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging a denial of free speech. Stanford is so confident of their case that he’s not even looking for another venue. He expects Hempstalk to return to Waterfront Park, without a doubt.

“We’re still fighting the city,” he said. “This is a free speech issue and they can’t tell us we can’t do this … we’re not going to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Yep, that’s right, no one understands the struggle of organizing these large scale events like we do. We do believe that Hempstalk will continue this year as it always has. We look forward to the day when we can spend our time holding these events as opposed to fighting the City of Portland and negotiating so much bureaucraticred tape.